Kasandra Larsen has poetry forthcoming in Stoneboat Literary Journal, and online at The Lake (UK) and Work to a Calm. Her full-length manuscript, CONSTRUCTION, has made it to the finalist phase in a first-book contest, and her chapbook, STELLAR TELEGRAM, won the 2009 Sheltering Pines Press Chapbook Competition.

who comes back wagging

after being kicked

in the ribs, sucker

for sorry, for even a half

smile. I am the dutiful

responsible. I am reliable.

I am the nod and silent

curse stuck in my throat,

the shapeless faded

sweater in what once was

your favorite color, the girl

unnoticed unless

my cleavage is showing.

 

I want to be the one-

two punch that knocks

you out, the triumphant

ten-count as you lay flat

on the mat, the sweat

dripping into your eyes

for the last half-mile, the cry

prompting the neighbors

to call 911, the red kettle

whistling to a white

scream, the burner

attracting the soft palm

of your fated hand.